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This is the sequel to The Bronze Horseman, set in Russia and New York as Tatiana, believing her husband is dead attempts to forget her life in Russia and create a new life for herself and her son, Anthony in New York. Meanwhile Alexander is tried by the NKGB and placed in prison after prison before being released to a penal battalion continually forced into situations that seem impossible to remedy (which of course Alexander gets them out of being a big he-man hero and all). As the war draws to a close and Tatiana begins to see inconsistencies in Alexander's death, she begins investigating his disappearance. Her hope fades and she begins to make other personal relationships only to discover that despite having escaped a war that seemed inescapable, she is still faced with terrors she thought she had left in the Soviet Union.
After reading this book, I can definitively say that I think this could have served the purpose the first book did, as a love story. This is especially considering that it went over (in memories) the events of the first book, the necessary events that had created the scenario in this book. I also enjoyed this book far more than the first book, as the events it explained (in the first part at least) were far more realistic and were depicted in a far better way. However, I do not admire anyone who will leave their son with a friend to make their way to the communist Soviet Union, especially not if you are wanted there, as romantic as it is seen to be, I think it is also incredibly cruel to risk one's own life at the expense of a kid never knowing his mother or father but again I probably don't know enough to be making a blanket statement.Maybe my complaint on this is just indicative of the fact that the plot was very wind-y which can be good but did not suit the tone of this book, in my opinion.
I still enjoyed the book very much and would recommend it over and above the first book.
This is the sequel to another book (which I have not read) and outlines the life of the author's daughter who has autism and how she grows to further understand the world and come out of the "nirvana" of her autistic behaviours. The preface by the famous psychologist Oliver Sacks demonstrates that the detailed recordings Park has taken of her daughter's life contribute to what is probably the most full account of living with autism available to a person without it.
Park explores the journey with her daughter, from a barely verbal child to an adult with a penchant for painting. In one chapter she explores her daughter's growing vocabulary as well as some of the intricacies of the English language which are more difficult for Jessy (her daughter) to understand. Another chapter explores her fascination with numbers and her huge ability with mathematics in her younger years. What is paticularly magical is the excitement displayed in discovering a prime number. The book also analyses books which Jessy made herself as a child and throughout her teenage years, some of which go deeper than any column on human nature into how strange human practices and language are.
As Jessy learned about the world, her mother was able to explain how she is now able to hold down a full-time job and also sell her artwork, which I would describe as realist surrealism as weird as that sounds. The author is able to show the wonderful magic of autism which she calls nirvana and the confusion and exploration which contribute to exploring how things work in the real world. I would highly recommend this book as a detailed, structured account of living with an autistic daughter.
This book is a love story set during the time of the Nazi invasion of the (then) Soviet Union. Tatiana lives with her family in Leningrad and is sent out for food on the day of the announcement of the Nazi invasion. This is when she meets Alexander Belov, a captain in the Red Army who happens to also be going out with her sister. The story progresses and the Nazis get closer and closer to Leningrad until they barricade it off, leaving Tatiana and her family without necessary food and less necessary vodka. Alexander watches as rations decrease more and more and throughout the winter when people start to die. When Tatiana and her sister Dasha finally make it out, the story increasingly becomes a love story set against a backdrop of bomb blasts, low rations and the ever-present fear of discovery.
My (new) flatmate lent me this book. This series is one of her favourites. I enjoyed parts of it, and other parts less so. The book starts off realistically but as the love story spirals out of control so do the historical inaccuracies and the unlikely scenarios that Tatiana and Alexander find themselves in. A part of the book towards the end consists of 100 pages of just sex and nothing else. Although the desire in this book makes sense, the presence of this and the absence of any other part of the setting made me believe it less. The two main characters, for me, were also not believable. Tatiana seemed to reserve herself and then dramatically come out of her shell, she then fell pregnant after months and months of starvation. Some people are incredibly fertile, but not that fertile. The likelihood that she could then also suffer what she did and come out nearly unscathed was also unrealistic.
Despite this, I do realise that this story was above all a love story. The love part was done very well and with a good accuracy for the time (the notion of Alexander owning Tatiana did niggle my inner feminist a bit but it was like that back then I imagine). The continued reference to the book of poems which serves as hope not just through the poetry but also through the secretive storing of money was a nice image. The descriptions of Leningrad also built a good picture in my head and I would say they are also accurate as Simons grew up in Leningrad. I would recommend this book but people should keep in mind it is fiction, it is unrealistic in parts and it is above all else a love story. I'm currently reading the sequel.
This book became a classic on its publication in the early '70s, encapsulating the drug culture of that time and the resulting happenings. Thompson sets out to find the American Dream with his attorney while covering a motorcycle race in Las Vegas. The book is riddled with confusion, as the effect of the mescaline, pot, ether, rum, acid, amyls and tequila start to take force and the journey to get a story instead becomes a drug-induced mission which has no beginning or end.
Of course the book has been criticised and the sheer amount of drugs being ingested result in near (if not complete) drug-induced psychosis. Thompson, however, doesn't paint the picture as beautiful necessarily but includes every lurid detail, such as the state of the hotel room after only a few days of occupation and the several (although never-ending) collection of cancelled credit cards which he somehow manages to get away with using, without the police being called.
Perhaps one of the more amusing episodes in the book is when Thompson and his attorney stop off at a drugs conference which they find dated and boring. Posing as undercover police officers they weave tales from their imagination and several sober minds are persuaded by the two as to the despicable state of policing the drug scene. There is one part of the book written as a transcript (as according to the editor it made no sense), it's very amusing and the book is filled with black humour showing that although they had a wild time, you would not have wanted to be there with the knife-wielding attorney and Thompson himself who lives in a web of paranoia that the police are coming to get him (fair enough as they sometimes are).
The American Dream is found in the end, or not found as the case may be. Hidden inside you and if you want it you can have it. Although this book is filled with confusion, that is one thing that becomes clear by the end. This definitely gives an insight into drug-addled America in the 1970s in a similar way to Wolfe's The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. This book should be read, no matter what your beliefs simply because (as cliched as this sounds) it's a classic.
